U17 Wheat Kings gearing up for post-season run

The Brandon Wheat Kings are well aware it will be a war of attrition, and what better way to prepare than playing the best.

The Wheat Kings (26-3-4-1) close out their Winnipeg U17 AAA Hockey League season this weekend with back-to-back road games against the league-leading Eastman Selects (29-3-0-2), who they’ve chased in the standings all season long — and with the playoffs just one week away, there’s no doubt there’s a bit more on the table.

After winning 15 of its first 20 games and then taking 11 of its last 14, Brandon sits second in the 10-team league with 57 points, which is just three shy of Eastman and one over the Winnipeg Bruins (27-5-2-0) with all three teams having played the same number of games at 34. A Wheaties sweep this weekend in regulation would not only protect them from the Bruins jumping them, but would also propel them to a first-place finish over the Selects to give them a better seed for the playoffs.

While that outcome would be welcomed with open arms by first year head coach Aaron Rome, he said his team’s focus isn’t on who finishes first in the regular season.

“We’ve got a good opportunity this weekend to jump them, but we’re just looking to get ready for playoffs,” said Rome. “We’re in a good spot and it will be a good test against the first-place team in the league going into playoffs. Eastman’s a really good team and it should be really exciting, physical hockey, so we’re looking forward to it, but a lot of it is about getting ready for next week.”

The Wheat Kings enter this weekend’s tilt coming off their first loss since the beginning of January after dropping a 3-0 decision on the road to the Bruins, who also beat them in the championships last year after sweeping the best-of-seven series and going undefeated throughout the entire playoffs. Close to half of Brandon’s team this season are returning from last year’s heartbreak and the other half of rookies also lost to the U15 Bruins during springtime as well, so motivation to finish what was started last season shouldn’t be hard to come by, according to Rome.

“Both age groups of kids are familiar with the kids on the teams that we’re going to compete against to get into the finals here, so there’s a little bit of I would say rivalry. I would say our boys should have a have a chip on their shoulder and should be excited to meet those teams in the playoffs and see what we can do.”

There’s a good chance it will be a return to the final if they keep playing the way they are.

All of Brandon’s success this year is boiled down to balance. Averaging just under five goals for and two goals against per game, it’s defensive prowess combined with a consistent ability to put the puck of the net has proved to be hard to top. And what makes it even harder is its depth.

The Wheat Kings have seven players with at least 30 points, nine players with at least 20 and 15 players with at least 10. Any player in the lineup is capable of scoring at any moment in the game and that’s what makes this team poised to make a run because while the saying “Defence wins championships” still runs true, it’s also a team effort that takes a group of players to the top — not just two of three.

“We get a lot of scoring from up and down our lineup,” Rome said. “Our four groupings on forward and all 3 groupings on D, and both goalies for that matter, are pretty even. We get lots of contributions and it seems like we get timely scoring from different places.

“I would say that’s probably the biggest strength is we’re able to get contributions up and down our lineup.”

Rome also has high end talent at his disposal as well.

Brayden Watt, Etienne Visser, and captain Ty Aldcroft all have at least 40 points and lead the Wheaties in scoring, with Watt notching 18 goals and 48 points, Visser collecting 16 goals and 43 points, and Aldcroft paving the way in goals with 23 to go along with 42 points. In addition to the regular season, the trio also led their squad offensively in a pair of tournaments, when the Wheat Kings attended the Winnipeg Jets Elite Classic tournament during the end of November and the Lorne Molleken Prairie Classic tournament in Caronport, Saskatchewan in the second week of January.

The Wheat Kings went 2-2 in round-robin play in the WJEC before falling 5-2 in the quarterfinals to the Bruins — with the Selects eventually going on to win the championship with a 3-2 win in overtime against Bishop’s College School — and then dropping another 5-2 contest to the host Prairie Hockey Academy prep team in the final of a four-team tournament.

Brandon may have only played four games in Saskatchewan, but nonetheless, Rome believes the experience his team gained from that tournament was priceless.

“That was the toughest hockey that we’ve played,” he said. “It was good to see teams from different leagues and a little bit stronger competition as opposed to what we’ve been seeing in our league. These teams were a lot more physical, have a little more skill and are just tougher to play against, so it was four really competitive games which is kind of what we were looking for.

“It’s tough at the time, but then when you get back to your league, you kind of just take that experience and you kind of try to raise your level to that, which has been good for us.”

Rome believes his team has gotten tougher to play against since then, but still needs to work on playing a full 60 minutes as the post-season approaches.

“For us, it’s just focusing on what makes us successful and doing that right off the bat,” said Rome. “Just being a little bit more prepared to start games, not feeling our way into it, but just getting after it right away, kind of establishing how we want to play as a group as opposed to seeing what the other team’s trying to do.”

Rome’s had a lot of experience trying to do that himself during his time as a player with the Western Hockey League’s Brandon Wheat Kings, and in the American and National Hockey League, where the Nesbitt product most notably had stints with the Anaheim Ducks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Vancouver Canucks, Dallas Stars, and Manitoba Moose.

During his time as a professional athlete he said he’s learned how to deal with high pressure moments in big games — including a run to the Stanley Cup final with the Canucks against the Boston Bruins in 2011 — so his message to his team heading into the best time of the year is to stay level-headed.

“Playing in big games for them moving forward, just treat it like it’s another game,” he said. “Don’t get too excited, obviously you’re going to be excited about it, but don’t get too high, don’t get too low. Just treat it like it’s another game and just try to have fun with it. At the end of the day, it’s the same, you play the same 60 minutes and you’re probably gonna get the same amount of shifts so just treat it like usual and have fun with it.”

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com